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Slain Civil Rights Worker's Mother Dies

Slain Civil Rights Worker's Mother Dies

NEW YORK - Carolyn Goodman, the mother of one of three civil rights workers killed by the Ku Klux Klan in the "Mississippi Burning" case, died Friday. She was 91.

Goodman, who lived to see a Klan leader convicted in her son's death two years ago, died at her Manhattan home, her son Jonathan said.

Goodman's son Andrew was killed on June 21, 1964, in central Mississippi's Neshoba County, along with fellow civil rights workers Michael Schwerner and James Chaney.

Chaney, a black Mississippian, and Schwerner and Goodman, white New Yorkers, had been looking into the torching of a black church and helping to register black voters during what was known as Freedom Summer. They were abducted, shot to death and buried in an earthen dam.

The slayings shocked the nation, helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and were dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."

Chaney's mother, Fannie Lee Chaney, died May 22.

Both women testified in the 2005 trial of 80-year-old Edgar Ray Killen, who was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three consecutive 20-year prison terms.

After the verdict, she said the real heroes were those who stood up to the hate groups.

"I know a lot of people in Mississippi who have risked their lives," she said at the time. "I would say those are the most important people in my life. All the people who have stood up and the victims of the Klan."

In her testimony, Goodman told jurors about how her son wanted to go to Mississippi to help register black voters.

On June 21, 1964, she said, he sent his parents a postcard from Meridian. Several people in the courtroom wiped tears from their eyes as Goodman read a copy of the postcard aloud: "This is a wonderful town and the weather is fine. I wish you were here. People here are wonderful."

She told jurors she had hazy memories of being in Mississippi after her son was killed. "I remember the red soil and I remember he was buried here," she said. "It was all so horrible and terrible."

Killen was the only person to ever face state murder charges in the case. Nineteen men, including Killen, were indicted on federal charges. Seven were convicted of violating the victims' civil rights. None served more than six years. Killen's federal case ended with a hung jury after one juror said she couldn't convict a preacher.

Carolyn Goodman was a psychologist who founded a program to help mothers leaving mental hospitals learn parenting skills. She set up the Andrew Goodman Foundation in 1966 to carry on her son's legacy.

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Independent media has become the last firewall against government and corporate lies. Yet, with frightening regularity, independent media sources are losing funding, closing down or being blacked out by Google and Facebook. Never before has independent media been more endangered. If you believe in Common Dreams, if you believe in people-powered independent media, please support our critical Winter campaign now and help us fight—with truths—against the lies that would smother our democracy. Please help keep Common Dreams alive and growing.

Further

Americans spent President's Day wishing we had one, honoring the 44 former actual ones we did have along with a few fictional contenders - Vote For Lisa Simpson! - and marching to protest the sick hollow shell of a human being now occupying a once-lofty office. Meanwhile, after just one ugly, tattered, inept, felonious year in office, The Cheeto has already been declared by 170 political pundits the worst president in history. What a surprise. Said no one ever.